Young people as voting bloc could be midterm key

Different polls have different numbers, but the basic take away seems the same: young people may tend to vote Democratic but they also tend...not to vote. (CBS 2 file photo)

BOISE, Idaho (CBS 2) —

Less than 55 days to the midterm elections, and polls indicate Democrats are winning over younger voters by huge numbers.

But some polls also show less than 30 percent of young adults say they're "absolutely certain" they'll vote on Nov. 6th.

Voter turn out may well be the name of the game for both Republicans and Democrats in this highly contentious midterm election.

But the question with millennials appears to be: will they actually show up on election day?

Different polls have different numbers, but the basic take away seems the same: young people may tend to vote Democratic but they also tend...not to vote.

Simply put, political prognosticators say young people are an unreliable voter base. So we randomly asked young people at Boise State University not who they were going to vote for, but whether they were absolutely certain they were going to vote at all.

"I don't know if I'm going to vote," said Ashley Gomez. "I have to do my research first. If I do my research, I probably will but I've never been super into it."

"I feel like I will end up voting," said Anthony Jones. "Right now I feel like I will end up voting. I am luke warm, I'm not really into it."

"I need to look into what it's about," said Raye Coffee. "If I know what it's about, I'll probably vote. But if I don't know, I probably won't. I don't know anything about it."

"I think it's an important thing we all have to do," said Adam Croteau. "It's a hallmark of our country. So get out there and vote."

It's important to point out voter turn out for the U.S. midterms is notoriously low for all age groups, between 36 to 40 percent of the voting population.

But as we've reported, election officials in Ada County and across the country say based on strong primary turn out, this midterm election could be one for the books.